


Always Check The Fine Print

by BloodyKangaroo



Category: Naruto
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-07
Updated: 2015-06-10
Packaged: 2018-04-03 08:04:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4093342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BloodyKangaroo/pseuds/BloodyKangaroo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Naruto chooses to ignore the Shadow Clone Technique due to his lack of skill with clones. He discovers a way to meet a being called truth and cuts a deal, one Nine Tailed Fox in exchange for unparalleled knowledge of the nature of Chakra.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Naruto sat in a forest with large scroll lay open before him. He was sliding along the roll of paper and scanned the contents with in and saw the list of techniques. He was sliding along one by one as each technique was far beyond his understanding or that he was completely unwilling to understand. He moved until he finally arrived at something worth examining.

"Summoning technique: The gate of truth." He read aloud. "What the hell is that supposed to be?"

He stared at its entry just long enough to find out that it only need a few hand seals and a chakra. He needed on a little effort to it and if there was any move that he could make work it was this and there wasn't any mention of messing with the dead. A few moves to practice the three signs to make it work.

"Monkey, bird, horse." He muttered as he flipped through the signs and forced all the chakra he could into the technique.

At first nothing happened. Then slowly the air began to flicker and a central point of darkness began to focus his vision. He looked into it and the world suddenly turned white around him. Everywhere around him was just a blank white void except for a large black door engraved with a large eye. The eye had three concentric rings, each containing three tomoe per ring. Underneath it were nine other tomoe, set in columns of three tomoe per column.

"What happened?! Where am I?! What's that creepy looking gate?!" The blond shouted rapidly as he freaked out. "Oh god I knew I shouldn't have eaten that expired ramen!"

Naruto looked around in terror as he wondered exactly what could happen to instant noodles to trigger this level of hallucination. He only barely registered at first that something besides the gate was off about the place. It took him several seconds to place it. There was a weird pattern of what looked to be a black dust forming a circle in the air in front of him. He watched as some of the cloud descended and slowly formed into a generic, featureless, boy who existed only as the outline surrounding a portion of the void.

"Who, or what, are you?" Naruto demanded angrily.

"I am god, or the world, or truth." The manifest void spoke. He pointed slowly at Naruto and added. "And I am you."

This complex explanation flew right over his head. "And what do you want?"

"It's not what I want but what you want." The many named being replied. "After all you came to me, young jinchuuriki."

"What's a jinchuuriki?" Naruto asked.

"A human who contains one of the nine tailed beasts." Truth replied.

"Tailed beasts?" Naruto once again said in confusion failing to notice the door behind him slowly opening.

"Nine chakra constructs forged of the power of the Shinju's battle form." Truth answered. "The nine tailed beast to be specific."

Naruto froze up as he heard the answer to his question. It wasn't hard even for him to put together what he could mean by nine tailed beast. He had only ever heard of a single nine tailed creature in existence, the nine tailed fox that attacked Konoha twelve years ago.

"What do you mean? the Fourth Hokage killed the nine tails, didn't he?" The boy asked confused and distraught.

"One cannot kill a Tailed Beast." Truth answered matter of factly. "They simple break and reform."

"So I have the Nine Tails stuck in me and no one told me!" Naruto shouted angrily.

"Yes." Truth answered simply.

"And who knew about it?" Naruto asked still seething.

"Everyone over twenty and a majority of all people between the ages of 16 and 19." Truth answered.

"Does that have anything to do with why they all glare at me?" Naruto asked.

"Yes." Truth said.

Naruto clenched his fist and punched it into his palm.

"So do you not want it?" Truth asked.

"No!" Naruto shouted. "I don't want it!"

"Then how about a little deal. You came here for a reason." Truth said. "You seek the knowledge to be shinobi. I can give to you in exchange for the source of your troubles."

Naruto answered without a second's hesitation. "Yes."

By this point, the door behind Naruto had fully opened and a single massive eye was staring at him from a black void inside. Hand-ended tendrils of the inky blackness surged forth and grabbed the young blond, lifting him off his feet and pulling him inside. The door shut behind him and he screamed in terror as coiled beams of ethereal light emerged from nowhere with in the darkness and crashed into his forehead. His screams of fear and anguish where soon drowned out, however, as the hands ripped open his jacket and slid his shirt from his stomach, revealing a spiral with a four pronged arc on each side. The spiral vanished and the arms pulled away an orange claw larger than Naruto himself. The claw was followed by an arm, then a large canine head and torso, soon after its legs, and finally nine enormous wildly swinging tails. Naruto was so distracted, the burning sensation in his head was completely ignored. Only after the beast was out of sight did the pain continue.

Then just as quickly as it had all happened he found himself sitting outside the door with truth standing in front of him the Nine Tails' former seal on his stomach. Naruto stared at the ground breathing heavily and sweating with a shocked expression.

"I! Am! An! Idiot!" Naruto shouted punctuating each word by smacking himself in the face with his open palm. Everything he had ever done wrong when using a chakra based technique was now blatantly obvious to him as well as one other thing. "I've been saying it wrong the entire time! Why didn't anyone ever tell me?!"

The next second he was sitting back in the clearing with the scroll still completely open and he ignored it as he stood up and formed a ram sign. He focused and with an instant later four perfect copies of Naruto simply phased into existence without an ounce of smoke. He looked at the clones eye twitching as he saw how easy it was to do all of a sudden. Everything he had done wrong on the academy's three basic techniques was now blatantly obvious to him and it drove him mad. If he was doing this wrong what else was he screwing up?

A few seconds later Iruka landed on the ground next to him. The scarred chuunin was breathing heavily and Naruto could tell he had been running around.

"Iruka sensei, what are you doing here?" Naruto asked.

"Looking for you! Do you realize what you've done?" Iruka shouted.

"Huh? I just did the make-up exam like Mizuki sensei said." Naruto replied confused.

"Make up exam?" Iruka asked him.

"Yeah steal the scroll and learn a technique off of it before anyone finds me." Naruto explained.

"Naruto there is no such exam." Iruka explained.

A rustling told him that someone had landed in a tree and both academy student and teacher turned to find a particular white haired chuunin with two large shuriken strapped to his back.

"Naruto give me the scroll." Mizuki said.

"Mizuki?" Iruka asked as he recovered from his heavy breathing.

Mizuki looked down at Iruka, having just realized he was there. He quickly whipped a mix of kunai and shuriken at the blond, which lead to Iruka pushing him out of the way. Naruto stared at Iruka, stunned with the scroll at his feet.

"Naruto run!" Iruka shouted to him.

Mizuki panicked, not wanting to have to try to track Naruto down. If he did, there was a chance of another patrolling shinobi might find them, and the less actual threats he had to deal with the better. He needed to get Naruto to stay still.

"Naruto, do you want to know a secret?!" Mizuki asked manically trying to hide his panic.

"What secret?" Naruto asked buying time as he went over everything he had gotten from truth that night. There had to be something that could help him out.

"The secret as to why everyone hates you." Mizuki answered with a cold sneer.

"Think I've got something, just have to keep him talking." Naruto thought. He did his best to fake shock. "What?"

"Do you know the nine tailed fox that attacked the village twelve years ago?" Mizuki asked.

Naruto nodded already aware of where this was going and planning a way out.

"The Fourth Hokage fought it, but he couldn't actually kill it, so he sealed it in a newly born baby." Mizuki said pulling a shuriken subtly.

Naruto nodded again, still trying to come up with an escape plan. He had no delusion about being able to take down a chuunin with his nearly nonexistent skills.

"That baby was you, Naruto!" Mizuki shouted twirling the shuriken. "You're the Demon Fox, Naruto!"

Naruto focused his mind, readying his "plan".

"Now die, demon!" Mizuki shouted, hurling the shuriken at the blond.

Iruka tried to move to defend Naruto but was slowed by his injuries just enough that he couldn't make it. He watched helpless as the shuriken collided with Naruto. Mizuki laughed manically while Iruka stared in despair for half a second before he saw what hit the ground. A log with a single oversized shuriken sticking out of it. The two stared at the log in shock for a minute. No academy student should be able to do a substitution without even smoke. It took Mizuki a moment longer to realize that he had just failed to kill the academy dead last in one attempt.

Naruto was hidden in the bushes around them, sneaking as quietly as he could to get within striking distance of Mizuki. He had to be as close as possible before hurling his kunai and shuriken at the white haired chuunin. He could barely hit a stationary target at ten meters. A chuunin who could dodge was completely different. Naruto reached for the shuriken holster at his leg and drew a few kunai. Mizuki was back on guard twirling the second large shuriken on high alert as Iruka seemed to be severally weakened by the injuries inflicted by the storm of sharp steel that he had been hit with earlier. At least he was still alive for now but Naruto wouldn't be able to count on him for support.

Mizuki's head moved from side to sid,e scanning the forest floor, waiting for Naruto to just burst out and attack him. Naruto threw his kunai from the side on the ground. Mizuki heard the whistling but dismissed it out of hand as the shuriken he was spinning. He felt a sharp pain in his side as a single kunai passed harmlessly in front of his face and bounce off the shuriken throwing it off balance and causing him to drop it. Mizuki looked at his side and found one kunai stuck in it though thanks to his chuunin vest not far enough to be lethal.

Naruto froze in his hiding place as Mizuki stared down where the attack had come from. Mizuki took no time at all to figure out roughly where Naruto was hiding but the random scatter meant it would take longer than he could be bothered to figure out where Naruto was. Not when he could simply torch the area and either incinerate the brat of force his screaming and on fire into the open. Naruto watched as Mizuki flicked through a series of hand signs and inhaled deeply. The blond jumped to the side as a ball of fire erupted from Mizuki's mouth and set the spot he had been in a moment ago ablaze.

Naruto noticed something odd as he stared at the flames. Something in his head just clicked it but he didn't have time to stand and think about it. Mizuki descended on the blond kunai in hand and Naruto barely managed to stop himself from flying right into the blow. Several cut blond hairs drifted towards the forest floor as Naruto drew another kunai and raised it defensively. Mizuki thrust his knife towards the blond and Naruto raised his. The sound of two blades clashing echoed through the clearing.

"Well I'll say this much demon." Mizuki said in a condescending tone. "You're better than I thought. Then again I thought a toddler could kill you head on."

"Go fuck yourself!" Naruto shouted, barely holding up.

"Well there's still one thing I could tell you can't do at a glance, though." Mizuki said as he flicked his wrist, letting Naruto topple forward from his own strength.

The white haired chuunin kicked at Naruto before he could regain his balance and sent him flying. Naruto crashed into the ground and rolled as Mizuki closed on him. Naruto just barely managed to roll out of the way of a knife aimed for his throat and got back to his feet. He glared at the traitor and tried his best to think of a way out of the situation. He couldn't win, he knew that for sure by this point. His only hope was to get out of there with and get Iruka and the scroll.

Mizuki charged Naruto again and stabbed at the blond with his kunai burring itself in the log with his shuriken again. He turned back to the center of the clearing where Naruto was running for Iruka and the scroll. Mizuki hurled a kunai and Naruto jumped back to avoid being stabbed the flying blade.

Naruto glared back at Mizuki who once again started doing the same hand signs as earlier. Naruto recognized it and bolted towards the woods for cover. He jumped behind a tree as the light of a fire ball came from the other side. Naruto could feel the heat coming around the tree sweating and saw the light from behind the tree. He actually felt the skin on his arms blister from the heat and hoped it would end soon.

Mizuki stopped the technique as he felt the drain on his chakra becoming a problem. He looked at the scorched patch of forest and started a slow approach. An orange blur shot from around the side of the tree. Mizuki reached for a kunai as Naruto shot past him giving him a wide birth. Mizuki turned to attack Naruto and quickly whipped the knife at the blond which passed harmlessly through the boy.

"What the hell?" Mizuki asked. "Was that a clone?"

Mizuki saw an orange glow and felt a surge of heat coming from behind him. He turned around and saw a massive fireball flying at him already nearly right on top of him. Mizuki could only stare like a trapped deer as the fireball closed the last few feet faster than he could move.

"How? How does this worthless brat know the Great Fireball Technique?"Mizuki thought as the flames consumed him. Afterwards all he could do was scream in agony as his blood vaporized, his flesh charred, and his brain was boiled.

Naruto fell backwards looking at what he had done with his newly acquired fire technique. He watched as the flames died down and saw the charred black remains that lay on the ground with what was left of his face frozen in a twisted scream of horror. Naruto dropped to his hands and knees and retched several times before hurling. The blond remained like this for several hours before a team of ANBU arrived on the scene.

One in a boar mask kneeled down next to Iruka. "He needs medical attention!"

Another in an insect like mask looked down at Mizuki, and without saying a word bent over and pulled out a scroll. While he was doing that the third member, a goat masked member, grabbed the scroll of seals. The last member in a lion mask looked down at Naruto and pressed a collar mounted radio mic.

"Area is clear, targets contained, we're reporting back. Prep the emergency room, the morgue, and a cell." Lion said.

The body vanished in a puff of smoke and the insect masked ANBU walked over. Naruto was lifted by his arms and had his hands bound by rope.

"Stay between beetle and me." Lion ordered. "You've got a lot to explain."

Naruto didn't say anything and followed as he jumped along still dazed at his first kill. Lion looked over the clearing once more before leaving. The Hokage was not going to like this, for that matter neither would Ibiki. He had to stop himself from sighing.

"This is going to be along night." He thought.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
End Note

Okay just going to add this minor point Naruto will be getting smarter as the story goes. The thing he got from truth was a complete and perfect understanding of chakra to the point he can do things like recreate a technique just from seeing the move itself and will be able to use any bloodline type ability that doesn't require a specialized body or body part. Like he can copy Ice release but not the sharingan because the sharingan requires a specialized Uchiha's eyeball to work.

So he will be getting good but it'll take time for him to pull off. Perfect knowledge of Chakra or no he's still Naruto and simply sitting around to focus on getting the fullest use of this knowledge is going to take him more than one sitting. Also while he understands chakra perfectly learning the techniques is still a matter of seeing the technique in action to reverse engineer the end result into the how.


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto was in a small gray cell that was completely clear of anything except a dirty toilet and a small green cot for the prisoner. He was lying on the bed staring at the ceiling awaiting interrogation for what was essentially treason. He had realized in hindsight just how obvious that was. The best he could do to that was tell them his story and hope they would believe him or that Iruka could back him up. As he did he went over what of the information he had gotten from truth that he could. At the moment it was so much that it had become abit jumbled and he needed time to sort it all out.

"Man I can't wait to try some of this." He said aloud. He could only assume the rooms were soundproofed because otherwise it was entirely too quiet. He then glared at the nothing. "After they let me use chakra again!"

He sat quietly watching the ceiling for a solid ten seconds.

Naruto jumped to his feet and shouted. "Damnit all! This is so boring!"

Ibiki walked down the stone gray corridors of the Torture and Interrogation department. He had to get the story of the scroll incident from the previous night out of someone. Naruto being the only person directly involved who wasn't in the hospital, in one way or another, was the only one left. He had decided to let the boy stew in an empty wing for the better part of day to unnerve him; isolation had some rather nasty effects on most people. Now it was time to see what he had to say.

He walked up to the last steel cell door in the hall and reached out. He turned the knob slowly and deliberately expecting the occupant to be tense. He opened the door slowly. He was expecting an attack, or an escape attempt. He wasn't expecting what he found. Naruto ran at the wall directly to his left, jumped, ran up it about three steps, and back flipped back into his starting position before repeating the process again. After watching the blond do this five times without stopping he coughed.

"Finally!" Naruto shouted. "I've been bored out of my mind in here! Do you have any idea what I could have done with the last! ... How long have I been in here?"

Ibiki resisted the urge to sigh and just said. "Shut up and follow me."

Naruto glared and stuffed his hands roughly in his pockets, muttering curses under his breath but did as he was told. Ibiki and Naruto walked through the empty hall and into a small room at the end. Ibiki opened the door to a small gray room with nothing but a table bolted to the ground and two chairs on opposite sides of the table. Naruto just walked over and sat at one end while Ibiki sat at the other.

"Okay boy tell me. What happened last night?" Ibiki asked.

Naruto took a single deep breath and rattled off exactly what had happened from the moment Mizuki gave him the exam to when he opened the scroll. He only paused to breathe and would have burst out into the rest of the story, except Ibiki decided to start asking questions.

"So you claim Mizuki, a chuunin, and teacher, picked out the only student who failed the exam to break into the most heavily guarded building in the village." Ibiki said tone indicating he didn't believe a word of it.

"Yeah." Naruto replied completely missing the distrusting tone. "So anyway I opened the scroll and found this move that let me summon this giant door, and some guy that said he was me, and truth, and god. Wait does that mean I'm god?"

Ibiki just stared at the kid amazed by the supreme amount of obvious bull he was spewing, without a single hint that any of it was a lie. He had met and broken experienced jounin that couldn't pull that off.

"And he made this deal where I traded him the Nine Tailed Fox for knowledge or something, and then I got pulled into the giant door." Naruto said and then paused crossing his arms and looking confused.

"What happened next." Ibiki asked against his better judgment.

Naruto just kind of wiggled his arms as he said. "Then it got weird."

"Weird?" Ibiki asked.

"Weird." Naruto repeated doing the arm wiggle.

Ibiki just nodded and did his best to keep things going. Somehow he felt that was better for his sanity. Naruto continued on with a word for word recount of the rest of the night, and probably most surprisingly showed actual remorse at killing Mizuki.

"All right." Ibiki said waving a hand.

A few seconds later and a man in a basic chuunin uniform came through the door.

"Take him back to his cell." Ibiki said. "I have to go give a report."

A short while later Ibiki stood in a round room with a green desk at one end. Behind the desk was an old man in a red and white robe shuffling through paper work.

"And you're sure he isn't lying?" The old man asked.

"I'm sure he doesn't think he's lying." Ibiki answered.

The old man sighed. "So Naruto kun learned about the fox, and this was his reaction. Well his reaction wasn't entirely unexpected. At least denial and delusion is better than a genocidal rampage at least."

"What should I do with him?" Ibiki asked.

"Release him and send him straight to me." The Hokage answered. "I have something I need to discuss with him."

Ibiki nodded an left the room. The Hokage stood and left the room soon after.

Half an hour later Naruto stood in the room with the old Hokage a file folder in his lap.

"Naruto kun I have heard your story on what happened last night." Hiruzen said with a comforting smile. "I wanted to inform you that for defeating a traitor and saving the scroll, you have been given a merit promotion to genin."

Naruto stood stock still for a moment, while the Hokage pulled out a blue head band with a metal plate with a stylized leaf on it. He started trembling and launched himself forward and hugged the old man as the two crashed to the floor. The old man just patted Naruto on the head and smiled. Naruto snatched the headband and ran around the room jumping and wooping. The Hokage used his time to get back in his seat. He coughed to get Naruto's attention. Naruto ignored him and just kept celebrating. The Hokage coughed again. Naruto completely ignored him once more.

"Yes!" Naruto shouted as he made yet another leap and crashed head first into the ceiling.

"Naruto kun." The Hokage said calmly.

Naruto slowly sat up rubbing his head.

"There are somethings you need to know now that you're a genin." The Hokage said.

"Okay." Naruto said. "Like what?"

"Well you're going to have to return to your class in six days time." The Hokage informed him. "there's more in here."

The old man passed along a folder with several papers in it.

"The schedule for the meeting, where to get your picture taken for your file, and several other important things." The Hokage said. "Well that should do for now. I'm sure you want to get home."

Naruto jumped for joy once more. "Yes!"

The blond ran out the door cheering to himself at the top of his lungs. The old Hokage chuckled as he started sorting through his desk for his pipe. The sound of Naruto running through the streets, followed closely by the ANBU operative he had just assigned to ensure the safety of both Naruto and those around him.

Naruto walked from tower skimming the folder he had been given. He'd have to do all of that later since he had something else he wanted to work out. He headed for home. A change of clothes and a cup of ramen later Naruto was on his way to one place he really didn't think he'd ever willingly go, the library.

Naruto wandered through the streets for a good half an hour before realizing a very important detail he had forgotten.

"I have no idea where it is!" He shouted at the top of his lungs.

Every one on the street flinched and covered there ears. Naruto stood arms crossed glaring at the ground as everyone in the street walked by glaring at him.

"Okay think. How can I find the library? I could ask someone. Wait no one would actually tell me. Well the old man but that means bothering him while he was busy, and he gets annoyed if I do that to much."Naruto thought . "Guess I don't have a choice but to hunt the stupid place down."

Naruto sighed and took off once more with a vague hope he could find one building in a small city before the day was over. Naruto wandered the streets for several hours without finding the library. He did eventually find the next best thing, a second hand book store.

"Well It's better than nothing. Besides its cheaper than buying new."Naruto thought as he walked through the door.

The inside of the shop had walls lined with books and a single desk. The only other person in the shop was a girl a bit older than him with short brown hair wearing a pair of reading glasses stooped over a scroll. Naruto shrugged it off, not expecting any kind of service after twelve years of nothing. He started looking through the rows of books hoping dumb luck would allow him to find something about chakra, ninjustu, or taijutsu.

He had learned a few things fighting Mizuki, the grand fireball technique aside. He knew he needed work to survive on the battlefield, and the fact that his deal with truth had been the only reason he wasn't dead had taught him step one to improve was to learn what you were doing wrong. Fortunately for him he already knew the answer to that, unfortunately that answer was everything.

"Can I help you?" An energetic sounding voice behind him said.

Naruto jumped and hit his head on a ceiling for the second time that day. The voice giggled as Naruto turned to find the girl from behind the counter had left her scroll alone to check on him. Naruto rubbed the top of his head and stood up.

He dusted himself off and asked her. "Do have any books on Ninja?"

She paused for a second and turned deadly serious. "Do you have any proof you are one."

Naruto dug in his pocket and pulled out his headband.

The girl went back to smiling brightly. "Yes we do."

She went behind the counter and opened a door Naruto hadn't seen when he'd first come in.

As she started digging around in the back she shouted out to him. "So what do you want a book on?"

"Anything and everything" Naruto answered.

"Oh an ambitious one." She said.

Naruto's eyes scanned around the rest of the shop as she worked.

"Well something like that. I am going to be the Hokage someday." He bragged and waited for the laughter.

"Well then might I interest you in an addition?" She asked as she came out of the back with a pile of four different books.

"What?" Naruto asked surprised at the lack of mockery.

The girl ran out from behind the counter and over to one of the shelves. She scanned along a few rows quicker than Naruto would have thought anyone could. She pulled a surprisingly small book off one of the shelf and dropped it in front of him. The book was a simple leather bound tome with the title "The Art of War" and the author's name smudged out.

Naruto looked it over once and turned his attention to the books on the ninja arts. The first was just a basic book on academy level chakra theory, the second was manual on basic taijutsu, the third was simultaneously insulting and accurate "Genjutsu For Dummies", and a book with various chakra control exercises.

"This is it?" Naruto asked.

"What were you expecting?" The girl asked.

Naruto shrugged and sighed. "Well I guess I'll take them?"

"Great that'll be." She paused and did some quick adding in her head.

Naruto had his wallet open as he shouted. "What!"

"Well they are ninja manuals." The girl said. "They cost twice as much new."

Naruto handed over a wad of bills and a few coins muttering about highway robbery under his voice. The girl smiled and stuffed the books into a bag and passed it over to him.

As he left she shouted behind him. "Come again!"

Naruto just waved as he left and scanned the inside of his bag.

"Yep six books."He thought and was halfway down the street before he realized. "Wait six."

He checked again and found the inside found the five books he bought and a small novel. He pulled it out and a sheet of paper fell to the ground. Naruto looked around and flipped it open. It was just a little doodle of the girls head and the words "Good luck". Naruto looked back at the shop, actually reading the name.

"Suzunaan. Think I'll go there again." He said with a small smile and walked off.


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto arrived at a small class room with tiered desks three seats wide. There were some students already in the class, he ignored them and took a seat in the back corner. He just laid his head down, sliding the headband up just enough to make it visible to anyone who might bother him. He just lay still waiting for, for whatever it was that they were supposed to be there for. Eventually he heard the sound of fighting at the door. He recognized one of them as his crush. Normally he'd have jumped up and tried to hit on her but he was exhausted, something he noticed to happen a lot more often lately. Not getting tired faster but taking a bit longer to recover when he did.

"Ugh, can't stay up all night got it."He thought and went back to his nap.

A little later an argument broke out in the middle of the room.

It was quelled when the door opened and a familiar voice shouted. "Sit down and Shut up!"

Naruto's head bolted up and he saw Iruka standing at the front of the class. He looked calmly before breathing a sigh of relief. His old teacher was heavily bandaged, and definitely a bit worse for the wear, but he was alive. That was the best news Naruto had heard all week.

"Alright from today on your all going to be in three man cells, so listen up." Iruka said and started reading off teams.

"Team seven Naruto Uzumaki, Chouji Akamichi, Hinata Hyuuga."

Meanwhile in the hall of justice... I mean the Hokage's office.

"You broke up the InoShikaChou?!" Several incredulous voices shouted in surprise. Those that didn't muttered among themselves.

Hiruzen looked out over the group and silenced them all with a stern glare.

One man cleared his throat and the entire room focused on him. "Sir, could you please explain your reasoning for this."

"The Fox's seal appears to have weakened during the battle with Mizuki." The Hokage explained. "Therefore I had to pick a team that was unlikely to cause undue stress that may bring it's power to the surface."

"But." One of the assembled Jonin started.

The Hokage simply looked at him waiting for the inevitable argument.

"But what about tradition?" He asked his wordier argument dying in his throat.

"Which is more important keeping one traditionally created team for the sake of it, or keeping the most powerful force of destruction in the village in its cage?" Hiruzen asked the man.

The man shut up and shrunk away as the teams were assigned.

"Team ten Shikamaru Nara, Uchiha Sauske, Ino Yamanaka." Iruka said. "That's all you have an hour for lunch to get to know you're teams and then your assigned sensei will come to pick you up."

The rest of the room filed out, if only to escape the ear grating sound of Ino's cheering, except for team seven. A boy with brown hair and a green jacket and a girl with short black hair in a beige coat approached Naruto. They just stared at Naruto who was still in his seat, face down on his desk. For a moment the room was completely silent.

"ZZZZZZ." Naruto broke the silence. "Snort."

Chouji face faulted as Hinata stood back looking a little embarrassed. Chouji stood back up and shook Naruto awake.

Naruto blinked once and looked around the room. "Where'd everyone go?"

"They left with there teams." Chouji said a bit annoyed. "Why'd we have to get stuck with him?I mean why not Shikamaru?"

"Hmm oh." Naruto said and then yawned loudly. "Sorry I was up till three in the mornin' tryin' to do this move I found in a book."

Hinata spoke up while trying . "Um shouldn't we go get lunch?"

Both of the boys turned to her and stared, she in turn turn a bright red and was about to utter and embarrassed apology before the two said in tandem. "Right, food."

Naruto stood up and asked. "So I think we should."

"Ichiraku Ramen right?" Chouji asked with a grin.

"Whoa. Are you psychic? Quick what am I thinking?" Naruto asked.

"No your just that predictable." Chouji said with a chuckle.

"So what do you want?" Naruto asked.

"Barbecue." Chouji said.

"Hmm." The two said staring at each other. They both looked at Hinata for a second before turning back to each other and nodding. Chouji asked "So what do you think?"

Hinata squeaked as they both focused on here. She turned even darker red and started poking her fingers together and quietly said. "I... I... think w-we should go to a a tea-. To the ramen stand."

"Yes!" Naruto shouted triumphantly.

Chouji looked at her with a raised eyebrow but went with it anyway. Naruto grabbed both of them by the wrists and pulled them along while at top speed. Chouji was about to shout to slow down but was surprised to find himself actually dangling in the air. He looked over to Hinata to see her reaction. She was blushing so intensely Chouji briefly wondered if all her blood was in her face while looking dumbly at her hand.

By the time he was able to ask a question he was already sitting at a stool at the ramen bar with himself and Hinata at either side of the excited blond.

They both stared blankly forward as a girl slightly older than them with long brown hair said. "Oh Naruto kun surprising to see you at lunch. Are these friends of yours?"

"My teammates." Answered before saying. "Can I get one miso, one chicken, and one beef."

Chouji and Hinata both stared at him as he paused for a second.

"Oh yeah and what do you guys want. My treat." Naruto said.

"Oh buying for someone else. That's the first time I've heard that." A middle aged man said.

Naruto chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. The other two looked on in surprise at Naruto actually having a casual talk with adults. This was something neither had ever seen before, since most adults seemed to completely ignore Naruto all together.

"Well? You ordering anything or do I have to order for you?" Naruto asked.

Hinata shook her head rapidly.

Chouji on the other hand. "I'll have a chicken and beef."

"Um vegetable." Hinata said.

"Coming right up." The older girl said cheerfully.

Once they had ordered Hinata realized something. "Will you two really be able to eat that much."

"Of course." Naruto and Chouji answered simultaneously.

"But we have less than an hour." Hinata pointed out.

The two boys looked at each other and grinned. "Challenge accepted."

The two not only managed to finish before the hour was up, but both managed to down their multiple bowls before Hinata could eat one. This conveniently left them enough time to be chewed out for their poor table manners in front of a girl by Ayame. Once Hinata finished her lunch they left waving good bye.

After arriving back at the class room they took a desk in the back and just waited. Within fifteen minutes every group had left with their teacher except one.

"Damn it why are we the only ones left?!" Naruto shouted angrily causing both his team mates to flinch at the sheer volume.

Naruto grumbled a few more curses under his breath and pulled out a small book. He opened it to a small page marked by a small piece of paper. Chouji looked at him surprised to see Naruto of all people reading. Hinata just peeked over his shoulder to see what he was reading, it was much to her shock an actual novel.

About half an hour in Chouji popped open a bag of chips and asked. "Either of you want some?"

"No thank you." Hinata said shaking her head slowly.

"Sure." Naruto said taking a couple. "Thanks."

Chouji nodded and scarfed down a handful himself.

They had to wait around for another hour before the door opened again. A man with gravity defying white hair, a mask pulled up to his nose, and a head band pulled over one eye.

"It's about time!" Naruto shouted pointing at the door without even looking up from the book.

The new guy just looked confused at him for a moment before saying. "My first impression of you guys."

Chouji and Hinata stiffened up a bit as he looked bored at them.

"I don't like you." He said while somehow managing to get across a smile while all but one eye was covered.

"So what else is new?" Naruto asked annoyed. "The sky is blue?"

The white haired man looked at Naruto briefly and said. "Meet me on the roof in five minutes."

The masked jounin went back and shut the door behind him. Chouji went for the door first while Hinata watched waiting for Naruto to get up. Naruto marked his page and followed out of the room. They walked up to the roof to find their teacher sitting on a rail in front of a tiered stairs. The trio sat down across from the jounin.

"Okay now that we're all here why don't you introduce yourselves?" The man asked.

"Introduce ourselves?" Naruto asked.

"You know your names, your likes, your dislikes, your hobbies, dreams for the future." Kakashi said. "Stuff like that."

No one said anything for a moment.

Hinata raised a hand. "Um could you give us an example, please?"

"An example. Hmm. My name is Kakashi Hatake, I like somethings, I dislike others, my hobbies... I have some hobbies, My dreams for the future, I don't feel like telling you." Kakashi answered.

Naruto and Chouji glared at him and the blond grumbled several more curses under his breath.

"Alright Blondie you first." Kakashi said.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, I like ramen, I dislike vegetables, my hobbies are training and trying different types of ramen." Naruto paused and added. "And reading now. and my dream for the future it to be the greatest Hokage of all time!"

Kakashi looked at Naruto and his teammates to gauge their reactions. Chouji looked a bit annoyed and was holding his hands over his ears, but not really much of a reaction, at least not considering his own ears were ringing. Hinata was staring starry eyed at him poking her fingers together.

"Oh great another love struck academy student. There's one on every team isn't there?"Kakashi thought. He indicated Chouji. "You next."

"My name's Chouji Akamichi, I like barbecue and my pal Shikamaru, I dislike people talking about my weight, my hobbies buying and eating snacks, and my dream for the future hadn't thought about it." Chouji answered.

He scanned over the team once again and neither seemed to react especially strongly, but neither seemed particularly antagonistic towards him.

"Last you." He said pointing at Hinata.

Hinata let out a small squeak when everyone focused on her.

She started poking her fingers together and trying to answer. "My name is... is Hinata Hyuuga. I like."

She paused and looked at Naruto.

"I like training. I dislike shellfish, My hobby is pressing flowers, and my dream for the future is to be strong enough to head the Hyuuga clan." Hinata said.

"Alright now that that's out of the way I'll tell you the first thing we're doing, a survival exercise." Kakashi said. "But it's not a normal survival exercise. This one's special"

"Why?" Naruto asked.

"Because if you fail this one, you'll be sent back to the academy." Kakashi said. "Though if you do pass you'll be genin."

Three pairs of eyes widened as Kakashi simply chuckled to himself.

"But, but we already graduated." Naruto said. "We are genin."

"Not quite, the academy test is simply to find those with the potential to become genin. It's up to the jounin whether or not you actually become genin." Kakashi said. "And I suppose I should add that two thirds of those attempted graduates will fail."

Team seven stared dumbly at the jounin.

"Tomorrow morning at six go to training field 3. Oh and a bit of advise, don't eat breakfast you'll just through up." Kakashi said and vanished.

Naruto shook it off first, followed quickly by Chouji. Hinata actually needed some shaking to get back to normal but recovered easily enough to. They each walked off thinking over the next day.

"Why did I have to get separated from Shikamaru? We'd pass easily with his brain."Chouji thought. "Seriously who broke up the InoShikaChou?"

"I have to pass or father will be disappointed."Hinata thought.

"Well this sucks."Naruto complained silently. He spoke up again "Well I've got to go get somethings."

Hinata watched him leaving and squeaked out. "Can can I come with you?"

Naruto turned back and looked at her.

"How about we all go?" Chouji said. "We should probably try to get used to working together after that."

"Eh sure." Naruto said.

They walked wordlessly, all lost in thoughts, towards a destination that only Naruto knew. They were given a wide berth which despite everything on their minds both Chouji and Hinata noticed. Naruto seemed to pay it no attention as though it was completely normal for him. They eventually arrived at their destination, a blacksmith.

Naruto walked through the front door into a shop filled with weapons and armors, each laid out on rows of tables with walls lined with gear and several other things behind the counter.

"Uh don't most blacksmiths make everything custom?" Chouji asked.

"Yeah I found this place the other day. The owner figured out that Kunai and Shuriken sold best when mass produced and decided to try it with everything." Naruto said. "Works well enough I guess."

"So what are we here for?" Chouji asked.

Naruto pulled out a book and flipped to a page somewhere in the middle. He pointed to an image of a weapon that had a chain with a farm sickle on one end and a small weight on the other.

"A Kusarigama?" Chouji asked pulling the book out of Naruto's hands.

"Yeah that." Naruto said. "Now get to searchin'."

After showing Hinata what the thing they were looking for the trio split up and began searching. They scanned through place. Naruto found something that caught his attention, not the chain sickle but a set of gauntlets and greaves that actually looked to be approximately the right size for him. He picked them up and checked the fits. He smiled and pulled them off and tucked them under his arm, and went back to his hunt. He eventually got interrupted by Hinata who was carrying the exact weapon he wanted but was far to big for him. As in the handle on the sickle was as big as Hinata herself.

"Uh." Naruto said.

Hinata looked at the sword she was holding, and then at Naruto. She got embarrassed and turned around Naruto shook his head and continue the hunt. He found only a few other weapons his size, a stick that after picking up turned out to be on of those fancy tri-link staves, and a thing that really caught his attention a flashy katana with a gold panted dragon on a sleek black scabbard. He stared mesmerized at the last one before snatching it up with out even checking the price.

The team met up again after an hour of searching none of them having found it.

"Oh come on I asked the old man about it and he said I could find one anywhere." Naruto said.

Naruto groaned. "Ah man like half the stuff in the book was based around having one of those."

"I'm sorry." Hinata said.

"What are you apologizing for?" Naruto asked. "You're the only one that even... got... Hey go grab that big scythe thing you found and meet me by the counter!"

Hinata blinked once as Naruto rushed off to the counter and started repeatedly hammering the service bell. She ran off leaving Chouji alone and confused for a minute before he just followed after her. Less than a minute later they were lined up at a counter with Naruto still hammering away at the bell excitedly.

A pair of curtains behind the counter that Chouji guessed lead to the forge parted and a tall, muscular woman with short black hair stepped out.

"Stopping hitting that!" She shouted at Naruto.

Naruto fell back and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Hey can I place an order?"

"That depends what is it?" The woman asked.

"Well I want one of these." Naruto said indicating the giant kusarigama. "Made for my size."

She looked at it with one hand on her chin and turned to Naruto and asked. "How tall are you?"

"157." Naruto started.

"Honest answer or they'll be off balance." she interrupted the blond.

"145 centimeters." Naruto said looking away.

She looked thoughtfully at the weapon and Naruto and said. "Alright that'll be easy enough. Anything else."

Naruto placed the armor and Katana down on the table.

"15,000 ryou and it'll." She said at a glance.

"Wait what!" Naruto screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Well you're asking for a master level crafted, chakra steel forged katana" The blacksmith said. "Between material costs, the time it takes to make, and the mark up needed to keep my shop going those things are worth a small fortune."

"What, but, ugh." Naruto said. "Okay I'll just go put it back."

Naruto walked off with a defeated slouch.

"Hey if you want something sharp I recommenced checking the polearms. Better than a sword for a short kid with no reach like you anyway."

Naruto had a weird reaction to that somehow both perking up and glaring at the shop keep at the same time.

"Wait here I'll be right back." Naruto said.

Chouji and the blacksmith stared at each other while Hinata just stared down the hall. Naruto scurried back around a short while later holding what was basically a sword on the end of a long stick.

"What about this?" Naruto asked.

The woman looked at the blade on a stick and armor Naruto laid out. "Okay then that all?"

"Yep" Naruto answered.

"Well alright then custom order and all that'll cost ya 1255 ryou." She said. "Heck even 1300 and I'll adjust the fit on the armor for you."

"Yes!" Naruto fist pumped before pulling out an over stuffed frog wallet.

"Well come around back." the smith said. "I'll have to do the fitting in person. It'll take at least half an hour or so and the kusarigama will be done in about a week."

She also grumbled under her breath. "Not looking forward to making that chain."

With that done for the day the team left the shop to find the sun was setting.

"Ah man that took forever." Naruto whined. "Now we can't get any training in today."

"Yeah looks like it." Chouji said. "I should probably get home before my parents get worried."

"I have to go too." Hinata said sounding far more disappointed than even Naruto.

"Well see you guys tomorrow." Naruto said. "We'll show the bastard what for then."

Something about his cocky statement seemed infectious because Chouji followed up with. "Yeah we will."

Hinata simply nodded and with that team seven split to prepare for the next day in their own ways.


End file.
